The Guardian - Friday 2nd November 1984

Eric Silver & Ajoy Bose. New Dehli

Troops were ordered last night to shoot looters and arsonists on sight, and most of New Delhi was placed under indefinite curfew, after about 50 people died in the capital and another 100 elsewhere in India . Helicopters were circling over the city in an effort to pinpoint new outbreaks before they got out of hand.

Government and Opposition leaders appealed for restraint in the wake of Wednesday's assassination of Mrs Gandhi by two Sikh bodyguards. The new Prime Minister, Mr Rajiv Gandhi, ordered the law enforcement agencies to bring the situation under control at all costs.

The story of violence was repeated in varying degrees throughout the country, with 25 people killed in the town of Bokaro, 20 in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, 20 in Bihar, five in Maharashtra, five in West Bengal, and five in Madhya Pradesh.

Twelve people were beaten to death and 40 injured when they were dragged from a train near Gwalior. The army was deployed in at least nine centres, including Calcutta, and curfews were widely in force.

In the predominantly Sikh Punjab, the authorities imposed censorship on all reports of communal unrest. In Amritsar, the Sikh high priest appealed to the government to protect Sikh lives and property.

The permanent head of the home ministry, Mr MMK Wali, predicted at a press briefing in New Delhi last night that the situation would be brought under control in most places by morning. He had no answer when reporters drew his attention to 10 cars burning outside.

The Ram Monohar Lohia hospital, in New Delhi, where 15 of the Delhi victims died and 240 seriously wounded were being treated, locked its gates and appealed for more medical staff. A survey of other hospitals put the dead at about 50 and the wounded at more than 400.

Hindu mobs attacked at least 20 Sikh temples in the capital, setting half-a-dozen on fire. The most serious incident took place at the Rakab Ganj temple, where 3,000 rioters, shouting 'Kill the Sikhs' and 'Burn their temples' roasted two Sikhs alive. One of them was a 14-year-old boy.

The assailants claimed that the Sikhs had dragged four Hindu hostages into the temple and hacked them to pieces. It was not possible to check this story.

When paramilitary police tried to restore order, the Sikhs exchanged fire with them. Late last night, the security forces had taken control of the temple, which is opposite the Parliament building.

At another temple, the Gurdwara Sisganj, hundreds of Sikhs with drawn swords were confronting a huge crowd of Hindus armed with hockey sticks and iron bars. A handful of policemen were striving to keep them apart.

A mob rampaged through the house of an opposition MP, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, and burned to death a Sikh youth who had taken refuge there. They destroyed most of the Hindu politician's papers, setting fire to furniture and to five cars parked in the road outside.

Hundreds of shops were burned and looted in New Delhi's local markets, with jewellers and television dealers the favourite targets regardless of communal affiliation.

An entire block was set ablaze in fashionable Connaught Circus, and the fire brigade was battling until late at night to stop another outbreak from engulfing the Regal, one of the city's biggest cinemas.

Smaller bands of Hindu teenagers sacked Sikh-owned houses. They seemed to be treating Mrs Gandhi's death as a pretext for going on the rampage.

About 20 youths wielding bamboo sticks broke into two houses near the Guardian office, in the Nizamuddin suburb, smashing doors and windows, shattering wash basins, radios, and record players, and leaving a trail of torn books, broken gramophone records, clothing furniture, and toys.

The Sikh residents found shelter with Hindu neighbours, who tried to restore order amid the shambles.

'At least,' said one of them, 'they weren't organised enough to set the place on fire.'

Here, as in many other parts of the city, there was no sign of police intervention.

A team of Indian reporters counted at least 2,500 vehicles - cars, lorries, buses and scooters - incinerated on the otherwise almost deserted roads of the capital. Almost all buses and taxis were taken out of service, and with all shops closed most people stayed at home.

Thousands of Indians, weeping or chanting slogans, filed past Mrs Gandhi's body, which was lying in state at Teen Murti House, which served as official residence for her father, Mr Nehru, when he was Prime Minister.

The government is anxious to restore quiet before dozens of world leaders, including Mrs Thatcher, arrive here for Saturday's funeral. It is already almost impossible to find a vacant room in New Delhi, hotels filling up with VIPs and foreign correspondents.

The surviving assassin, Constable Satwant Singh, was reported to have recovered sufficiently from his wounds yesterday to answer questions from intelligence officers eager to establish whether the assassination was part of a wider conspiracy.

His 55-year-old father, Mr Tarlock Singh Bajwa, was detained for interrogation yesterday in the Punjab village of Agwan Khurd, 12 miles from the Pakistan border.